Late spring in March is the season when all the flowers are gorgeous and green. However, when the people living around the Imperial City of Chang'an woke up, they were surprised to find that the hundred-year-old single willow tree at the T-shaped street entrance in the southwest corner of the Imperial City had lost its leaves and withered branches, and it was difficult to live.

Since the imperial court regained Liangjing two years ago, the alley where the single willow tree is located has been used as an execution ground for the execution of court officials who rebelled against Chang'an during the fall of Chang'an. In two years, more than 300 civil and military ministers who surrendered to the rebels and took up false positions were beheaded under a single willow tree. "When these men died, their spirits were attached to the trunk and leaves of the willow tree, so that the shade of the tree was so strong that the branches and leaves withered." After the Jingchu elder of the Great Ci'en Temple was ordered to preside over the water and land **** at the mouth of Duliu Lane for three consecutive days, he made the above ceremony to the emperor in person.

The next day, a decree came out in the Daming Palace, pardoning all the capital crimes of the families of the rebellious and executed, and recruiting boys and girls into the palace as eunuchs and palace people among their clansmen to atone for their sins.

At the same time as the decree was issued, the two completely different, but somewhat convincing folk rumors about the signs of the withering of the single willow gradually spread among the various markets in Chang'an City:

The version circulating in the Zhufang where the noble eunuchs live east of Zhuque Street says that the single willow tree was planted by Taizong himself in order to send Princess Yi'an and pro-Tubo, and it has been a hundred years since then, and it can be regarded as an old tree in Chang'an City. Once the old wood is dead, there will be a new tree to be reborn, which is in harmony with the loss of Chang'an City, which means that the imperial court will quell the rebellion in one fell swoop and rebuild Zhongxing.

However, in the walls of the small civilian households in the west of the city, the family sat in one place for a long night, and what they talked about was another version: willows have coexisted since ancient times. The Yang family has controlled the dynasty for many years, the party is the same as the other, poor and extravagant, and finally caused a rebellion and ignited the ****. After Luan drove back to Beijing, the only remnant of the Yang family, the crown princess Yang, was also expelled from the palace and died of hatred.

Although no matter whether rich or poor, everyone is full of beautiful visions for the future, and the death of the single willow tree is regarded as a good omen and smiles and rejoices, but since the single willow tree died for unknown reasons, the emperor in the Zichen Hall of Daming Palace was infected with scabies and could not afford to be sick. The queen from the Zhang family, who had a feud with the Yang family, took the opportunity to control the government, and deliberately expelled the prince who had a deep relationship with the Yang family from the East Palace, and a fierce battle between the two began......

The smoke on both sides of the river has not yet dissipated, will the huge empire be mired in the quagmire of palace infighting and unable to extricate itself?